NANOSWARM REPLICATOR - TEMPLATE

Of all the construct with the technological subtype nanoswarms are the most difficult to create.  Not only does the engineer have to build nanobots of incredibly small size, but they also have to build them in huge quantities.  Compared to typical technological constructs it’s incredibly expensive to build nanoswarms because everything has to be miniaturized. In addition to all the nanobots have to be able to communicate with each other to perform tasks over a neural network, a special type of hive mind.  To overcome the higher expense and time required to craft enough nanobots to create an effective nanoswarm engineers designed a synthetic RNA protocol which allows each nanite to store a copy of their design instructions.

This design protocol is essential to manufacturing new nanoswarms.  All nanoswarms are capable of replication when this protocol is turned on but most manufacturers program in a failsafe which terminates the protocol removing it from memory after a specific number of successful replications.  The protocol is then hidden and stored in an encrypted state.  It is possible for someone to hack into the synthetic RNA protocol and reactivate it in attempts to build additional nanoswarms or cause some mayhem and mischief.  By default, a nanoswarm set to replication mode will begin replicating with any available stock piles of Universal Polymer Base (UPB) and will continue replicating until the stock piles are exhausted or it has completed a specific number of replications.  There is a second replication mode which allows them to replicate without UPBs by gathering the required materials from their environment, and it’s this second mode that makes them dangerous.  While a nanoswarm is replicating, they are operating on firmware with an extremely simplified set of instructions, replicate.  Biologicals are extremely rich in materials required for nanoswarm replication so it’s only natural for the nanoswarm to aggressively pursue those materials. 

The second mode was originally designed to assist in terraforming and prepping a world for colonization.  A swarm would be delivered to a future colony site and the swarm would go to work replicating itself a set number of times before beginning its assigned tasks. A few months or years later colonist would arrive to a habitable outpost.

The Replicator template can be added to any nanoswarm.